Thursday, September 15, 2011

Pine cones and Botany

“One of the secrets of the educator is to present nothing as stale knowledge, but to put himself in the position of the child, and wonder and admire with him” - Charlotte Mason, Vol. 1, p. 54.

Today, The Little Lady and I read about Gymnosperms.She learned that Gymno means uncovered and sperm means seed. We discussed the Coniferaphyta of the Gymnosperms. Conifer means cone bearer and phyta means plant.

So, she went around gathering cone bearing plants such as pine cones for a camp fire.

The Little Lady also worked in her Botany journal.

She drew her idea of a Pine Tree with a pine cone.

Earlier, Beloved shared with her one of his many survival know hows that he gets from all of his survival training.

You take an unopened pine cone...

Pull it apart piece by piece...

(This was a little hard for her since the bottom of it hadn't been slightly tapped into by a squirrel)

Pull it back to expose the little seed.

The seed is the grayish-black item on the bottom.

Then, you pop it in your mouth for a little nutrition.

Although, you couldn't live off of it!

Beloved popped it in his mouth. Later, she did too.

Beloved says, "It always just taste like bark."

I took his word for it.

She will be putting pine cone seeds in a Ziploc bag and then taping it in her journal too.

Botany will be loads of fun for her out here at the camp ground that we are staying in for several months.